From: MediAction@aol.com
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 23:38:13 -0500
Subject: MEDIAlert! [A] - 31 OCT 96
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INDEX: "MEDIALERT!" [A] - 31 OCT 96 (Please note that Parts A and B have
been posted separately).
[PART A] MEDIAlerts:
- Item 1: "SCHLOCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOWS" [Millennium; Fox Television;
Cruising; Vito Russo].
- Item 2: "NOT JUST A LOT OF HOT HAIR" [Seventeen Magazine; Sadie Van Gelder;
Levi's; Sears].
[PART B] MEDIA/Briefs:
- Item 3: "OTHER ISSUES" [Teen Voices; Rethinking Schools].
- Item 4: "TABLOID ROUNDTABLE" [Star; Globe; National Enquirer; Chad Allen;
Jim Bakker; Whitney Houston; Julia Roberts; Ellen DeGeneres; John Kennedy,
Jr.].
- Item 5: "E-MEDIA WATCH" [National Coalition Against Censorship; Great Neck
Public Library].
- Item 6: "SUI DEGENERES" [Hollywood Reporter; Ellen; ABC/Touchstone; William
Paley Television Festival; AFA Action Alert; J.C. Penny; Coca-Cola].
- Item 7: "SOUND INVESTMENT" [State of the Union; NCAC].
- Item 8: "LEADING THE CHARGE" [Rainbow Card; Do Tell, Inc.].
- Item 9: "SOUND & (UN)SOUND BITES" [Michael Bronski; Gina Gershon].
General Information [about MEDIAlerts; author notes].
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M E D I A l e r t !
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October 16 - 31, 1996 Al Kielwasser
[PART A]
[1]
S H L O C K Y H O R R O R P I C T U R E S H O W
S
After just one episode, "People Magazine" has already declared "'Millennium'
is far and away the best new show of the year. Grade: A." The media hype is
equaled only by the media's homophobia.
FOX's much-touted series premiered on October 25, with an episode reminiscent
of William Friedkin's dismal 1980 film "Cruising." Though the plots of
Friedkin's movie and FOX's series differ substantially, both ultimately rely
upon the same, homophobic schlock.
Not unlike "Cruising," "Millennium's" premiere episode revolved around
abduction, torture and murder. Those characters who were either doing the
killing or being killed were all cast as "sexual deviates -- specifically, in
this case, female strippers and gay men.
By contrast, "Millennium's" heroic lead -- a sort of "freelance psychic
detective" -- is a bulwark of monogamous heterosexuality. At several turns,
he is pointedly shown with his loving wife and child.
Meanwhile, the lead KILLER is repeatedly shown cruising a darkened park,
filled with gay men "on the prowl." Indeed, little distinction is made
between the killer's world and that of his victims (as if masturbating a
stranger was really no worse than murdering him). Homosexuality is not the
subject -- but the object -- of "Millennium's" horror.
At one point, our hero-psychic-detective-dad hypothesizes that the killer is
probably a gay man himself. As the detective explains, this killer is driven
to murder because he is "confused about his sexuality" and suffers intense
guilt, "quite possibly from his mother." Not even a "normal" murder, our
closet-case killer engages in a host of gruesome activities, including ritual
blood-letting and sewing his victims' eyes and mouths shut (no doubt, that
too is mother's fault).
"Millennium" falls into a category of reprobate media described by Vito Russo
in his seminal book, "The Celluloid Closet" (1987). The series "reinforces
the fiction that violence is committed against gays most often by other gays
or by those who are sexually confused and threatened by their own latent
homosexuality. While it is true that teenagers are sexually insecure in
general, most often in American society it is the confident heterosexual
bigot who attacks homosexuals."
In his critique of "Cruising," Russo makes another point that is equally
applicable to "Millennium." "There is a difference between exploiting
violence to attack a group of people and using that violence to make a
legitimate point," Russo writes. "There is no aspect of human activity, no
matter how violent or repulsive, that cannot be dealt with onscreen fairly."
In "Millennium," it is a "confused" and "guilty" homosexual who attacks other
gay men and accuses them of "spreading the plague" of AIDS. In real life,
that deadly role is played by Jerry Falwell and Pat Buchanan.
Ultimately, "Millennium" insults lesbian and gay realities in its complete
disregard for homophobia -- which is NEVER mentioned in the script. To be
fair, any author who chooses homosexuality for a subject must also write
about homophobia. To do otherwise IS homophobic (and a massive case of
heterosexual denial).
Gratuitously linking images of sexual deviance, brutality, and death,
"Millennium" is merely a throw-back to deeply homophobic Hollywood
conventions. If the first episode is any indicator, this much-awaited series
is REALLY nothing new.
**** A c t i o n / O p t i o n s : Remind FOX that if "Millennium's"
current focus continues, the series will seriously roll back the network's
historic commitment to efforts to providing truly creative, "ground-breaking"
fare. Send comments and criticism to FOX Broadcasting, P.O. Box 900, Beverly
Hills, CA 90213, tel. 310-277-2211, fax 310-369-1433, e-mail
foxnet@delphi.com;"Millennium" is a venture of 20th Century Fox and Ten
Thirteen productions.
[2]
N O T J U S T A L O T O F H O T H A I R
"Seventeen" is one of several popular magazines targeting a readership of
young women. Like most of the others, "Seventeen's" latest issue includes a
staple menu of celebrity worship ("Guywatch: Brad Renfro to Brad Pitt"),
personal revelation ("I Thought I Could Get Away With Shoplifting"), and
fashion advice (""Hair Makeovers... What's New For Your Do"). Unlike many
others, however, "Seventeen" also promises its readers a mix of both "style
AND substance." That promise is kept in the November-1996 issue, which
includes a notable feature on coming out: "It's Who I Am."
Written by associate editor Sadie Van Gelder, the five-page feature is not
only a significant departure for teen magazines -- but magazines in general.
Van Gelder manages to avoid many of the heterosexist pitfalls that have
marred even the most well-intentioned coverage of queer youth.
Where most mainstream articles tend to lead with heterosexual concerns (e.g.,
"someone you know might be gay..."), Van Gelder begins with a lesbian's
perspective. Sixteen-year-old Amy "spends her free time playing guitar,
producing her own 'zine, and designing and sewing clothes for friends as well
as for herself," Van Gelder writes. "She's gone out with guys before....
But for as long as she can remember, Amy has secretly been more attracted to
girls."
Amy is one of several young women who are profiled throughout the feature,
offering a welcome diversity of experience. Mindful of her audience, Van
Gelder lets these women speak with authority about their own lives. Their
voices are not used merely to illustrate -- but to explain -- the facts and
figures that Van Gelder weaves into the article. The result is instructive,
without being pedantic.
Of course, Van Gelder does not ignore heterosexual teens. But, uniquely, she
is always careful to write TO -- and not simply ABOUT -- young lesbians.
Several paragraphs into the feature, for example, Van Gelder writes: "If you
think you've never known a gay person -- besides maybe Matt from 'Melrose
Place' -- think again. Or if you feel like you're the only lesbian in your
entire school, chances are you're not."
Van Gelder effectively dispatches with several of homophobia's more
pernicious myths and stereotypes. "Though hanging out with a lesbian won't
change your sexual orientation, it might affect the way you think --
especially if all you had to go on before were stereotypes," Van Gelder
observes.
The author quotes one of the young woman, Tonya, who complains: "People
expect all lesbians to be, I don't know, women with crew cuts who wear
flannel or something.... I have long hair, and I wear makeup and dresses and
nail polish, and I think it just blew everyone's mind." To her credit, Van
Gelder adds this (often unmade) point: "Still, there are plenty of lesbians
with short hair and flannel shirts whom you won't find lingering in the
cosmetics aisle (along with plenty of people with that description who are
STRAIGHT)."
Among several worth-while writers, Van Gelder cites Linnea Due, author of
"Joining the Tribe: Growing Up Gay & Lesbian in the 90's." "As a young
lesbian, you may see Melissa Etheridge on MTV and be excited about that,"
says Due, "but then at school you still have to deal with crap in the
hallways." "In fact," Van Gelder adds, "a 1992 study found that 60 percent
of gay guys and 30 percent of lesbians have been harassed or attacked at
school."
Another of the young women -- Lyn -- elaborates. In addition to the guys'
menacing yells of "Dyke!," Lyn recalls: "I also got pushed down the stairs
and had my books thrown over the stairwell, or, you know, I'd get up to
sharpen my pencil and come back to find assignments suddenly missing from my
book. It was pretty bad."
Van Gelder describes some of the alternative schools, gay/straight student
clubs, and other efforts intent on transforming such bad experiences into
something good (or at least something better). A boxed inset provides
"Seventeen's" readers with contact information for PFLAG, National
Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Youth Hotline, NCLR, and Lambda Youth Network).
"Not all gay kids have a hard time at school, but just feeling so DIFFERENT
can still take a major emotional toll," Van Gelder writes. In Lyn's case,
the toll was especially high. After coming out at 15, "her mom, who had been
'like a best friend' to her before, became unusually strict, constantly
asking about her whereabouts and who she was hanging out with -- or not
letting her go places at all." Finally, , Van Gelder reveals, "Although
homosexuality is not a mental illness... Lyn's mom sent her away to a
psychiatric institution for youth in Utah... where she suffered through strip
searches, behavior-modification therapy and doses of psychiatric drugs."
Significantly, Van Gelder resists the journalistic tendency to portray such
parental "concern" as if it were, in fact, concern -- or a somehow
reasonable, or even benign form of "worry." Standing squarely against
homophobia -- regardless of its source -- Van Gelder also avoids making any
inane overtures to "parental rights." She writes with admiration of Lyn's
eventual escape from the institution and relocation to a youth shelter where
-- with the assistance of the National Center for Lesbian Rights -- the
teenager sued to "'divorce' her mother."
"Lyn won," Van Gelder cheers, "and moved in with a lesbian couple (friends of
her lawyer) who had offered to be her legal guardians."
"Once I moved in with Ora and Rena, it just became, 'You can't go out with
your girlfriend'" -- Lyn laughs -- "'until you do the dishes.'"
Unlike other pop reporters, Van Gelder does not limit herself EXCLUSIVELY to
asexual queer themes (e.g., suicide). For instance, "finding girlfriends" is
also a problem for young lesbians, which CAN be overcome. Van Gelder relates
the "ecstatic" experience of one 15-year-old, who "actually ended up meeting
her first girlfriend online."
Rather than treat homosexuality as something that only emerges --
"full-blown" -- in late adolescence , Van Gelder writes of lesbianism as part
of a fuller life-cycle ("Nichole, for instance, began having crushes on girls
when she was in first grade"). She seems to get what many miss; defining
homosexuality as "adult subject matter" requires either a malicious or an
absent mind.
This is not the first time that "Seventeen" has bucked the homophobic bias of
teen-beat journalism. Last November (1995), for example, the magazine
included a supportive blurb on National Coming Out Day ("...there are
les-bi-gay teens everywhere, in school and at home and in town and
everything. If someone comes out to you today, or any other time, please try
to support and accept them"); a longer piece, "Ask Seventeen" offered advice
for girls who "sometimes check out stuff like kissing each other" ("It's
perfectly normal.... And even if you feel attracted to your friend, that
would be normal, too").
Such efforts seem warranted -- still. This September (1996), more than
35,000 readers responded to "Seventeen's" Design-Your-Own-President survey,
in which "you get to describe your ideal president." 45% indicated that
their ideal would be "straight," while 3% picked "Gay/bi" and 53% favored
"Who cares?" The survey also split over same-sex marriage; 53% said their
ideal president should support the idea.
**** A c t i o n / O p t i o n s : Whenever they address homosexuality in
anything less than demonic terms, teen magazines are especially prone to
advertiser boycotts and hate mail campaigns. For failing to comply with
their sex-negative agenda, "Seventeen" has been a regular target of such
homophobic groups as the "American Family Association" and "Concerned Women
For America."
Support for the magazine's latest effort should be sent to Sadie Van Gelder,
Associate Editor (and copied to Caroline Miller, Editor-in-Chief),
"Seventeen," 850 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022, tel. 212-407-9700, fax
212-407-9899 or 212-935-4237; for possible publication in the magazine, brief
letters (of 100 words or less) can also be sent to "Reader Mail," at the same
address, or by e-mail: SeventeenM@aol.com.
Prominent advertisers in the November-1996 issue include Sears and Levi's
(already a target of fundie boycotts for extending domestic partnership
benefits). Contact: Robert D. Haas, Chair, Levi Strauss & Co., 1155 Battery
Street, San Francisco, CA 94111, tel. 415-544-6000, fax 415-415-544-3939;
Edward A. Brennan, Chair, Sears, Roebuck and Co., Sears Tower, Chicago, IL
60684, tel. 708-286-2500.
[End of Part A]
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A B O U T M E D I A L E R T S
"MEDIAlert!" [TM] (formerly the "GLAAD Media Watch") is a biweekly,
advocacy-oriented column of media criticism, primarily focused on
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender issues.
Since 1992, this column has been distributed, on request, as a community
service. Recipients may print, publish or post this material, in whole or
part, under this or any title, without prior permission. When appropriate,
attribution can be made to "Al Kielwasser" and/or "MEDIAlert!" File copies
of publications using all or part of any "MEDIAlert!" are always appreciated.
Some current and back issues of "MEDIAlert!" are available online, through
the Queer Resources Directory (http://www.qrd.org/qrd/media/medialert/) or
the news section of AOL's "Gay & Lesbian Community Forum" (keyword: GLCF
News).
Next "MEDIAlert!" = November 1 - 15 , 1996.
Contact: "MEDIAlert!," 163 Park Street, San Francisco, CA 94110-5835,
voice-mail 415-826-5203, fax 415-826-5203 (ext. 8), e-mail
mediaction@aol.com.
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A U T H O R N O T E S
Al Kielwasser is the editor of "Gay People, Sex and the Media" (New York:
Haworth Press). He has taught a wide range of courses and workshops in
media theory and practice, and his research appears in the "Journal of
American Culture," "Journal of Homosexuality," "Journal of Popular Culture,"
"Feedback: The Journal of the Broadcast Education Association," "The High
School Journal," "Critical Studies in Mass Communication," and other
publications; he was twice elected Chair of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation/San Francisco Bay Area.
______________________________________________
Shape the forces that shape our society . . .
challenge homophobia in and through the media.
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